Every-Day-Carry (EDC) - Vehicle edition Part 1 (within-city-limits)

The average American Joe spends 101 minutes in their vehicle each day, a study found in 2013. As such, it is important to be prepared for any eventuality that may arise during your daily commutes.

The biggest factor in deciding what to pack for your vehicle-EDC is dependent on your individual situation and things like commuting time and distance, location ( city size, characteristics of your environment - for example if your commute takes you into Detroit every day your preparations must look different than if your commuting to a smaller town in rural Idaho) and also who you may be accompanied by ( co-workers, children etc).

We wanted to put a comparison together of what our EDCs look like - with a less than 10 mile per day commute within town limits on one side and an 80 mile round-trip commute on the other.

Within town limits, the obstacles are lesser and fewer between and the main objective is to get back to base, where more supplies and back-up are available. As such, the vehicle EDC is not even designed as a 72 hour kit.

The bag that Doc chose for her EDC is the Maxpedition Jumbo Versipack (color Green/Khaki) as she felt it would blend in with most cases and was the least "military" looking if she were to carry it on foot through town.

The shoulder-sling makes for a very comfortable carry and would even allow for you to carry an additional backpack if necessary without hindering your movement too much. The straps are adjustable and the first thing we noticed about this bag is that all materials, including zippers and buckles are very sturdy and well made.

The back pouch is designed to conceal a handgun and is easily accessible ( and conceals your gun even if the zipper is not closed - a definite plus in my opinion as it will allow for a much fast draw). It has a large velcro pad on the backside of it, which allows you to attach holsters or mag pouches to them. (Maxpedition has their own versions of velcro holsters and velcro mag pouches that I will be trying out very soon - at the moment my gun is fine just sticking in its own holster).

Obviously this handgun ( a Glock 19 in 9mm in my case) is only a back-up gun, so this is why I am not too worried about how it is fastened inside the pouch as it is a small area and I can still quickly gain access to my firearm if necessary. The pouch is also plenty big that it can house several other items, in my case a few spare mags ( both for my primary and secondary firearms).

 I also like to keep a small fixed-blade knife (in this case an inexpensive tactical neck knife) as well as some extra 9 mm hollow points in this bag.

The other pouch on the main flap is perfect for additional knife, multitools or the likes, in my case because I do have to wear eye-glasses I have a spare pair in there in case my glasses break or get lost. ( This is where those BOGO deals for glasses come in very handy!). A smaller pouch on the flap can house things like an extra mag and a pocket knife

Once you open the main flap ( that is secured with a very large adjustable buckle strap), you can access a smaller front pouch or access the main compartment through the drawstring cover.

The main pouch contains the following: a case with 50 rounds of ammunition, S.O.S emergency rations food bars (72 h kit), 1 Mountain House Scrambled Eggs and Bacon Meal, spare clothing (socks, underwear, t-shirt and a long sleeve underarmour shirt - which gets changed out depending on the seasons), mechanic gloves as well as a small first-aid kit- which still leaves plenty of room to spare if you needed to throw extra items from your vehicle or things you were able to grab lets say at the vending machine at work.

Even though I only have a very short commute / potential walk, depending on the time of the year and time of day it might be cold, so I chose to still carry a stove and a meal with me, to give both a little bit of physical warmth as well as a psychological boost. Unfortunately, due to some food allergies I am very restricted when it comes to which freeze-dried meals I am able to eat so I chose one that would give me a good amount of protein.


As I am a firm believer of packing skills rather than packing more gear, my medical kit only covers the very basics - gauze, band-aids, a method of disinfection ( Sterilium - one of the most effective hospital grade hand sanitizers and disinfectants in my opinion), basic pain killers ( Ibuprofen 200 msg), chapstick, triple antibiotic ointment as well as a spare menstrual cup. I always have a more advanced first-aid kit in my vehicle and if we travel further than my regular commute we either have our BOBs with a better medical kit or one of our separate medical kits with us. This was also the reason why I have chosen an over-the-shoulder style of bag to be able to carry extra if necessary.






The small pouch towards the front of the bag contains miscellaneous items like a casualty blanket, rain poncho ( I will probably be adding a camo-colored one shortly), a trioxane/hexamine tablet stove ( as it can also be powered with small sticks etc) and please don't forget about the human necessities that may arise on your way home - so I have added a roll of TP.

The side pouch to the left is subdivided and contains all fire-starting mechanisms ( 2 varieties of strike-anywhere matches, a lighter, ferrocerium rods and in the sub-pouch a Smith's pocket pal as well as a multi-tool).







To the right the Jumbo Versipack ( as opposed to the smaller versions) has a pouch designed for a 32 oz Nalgene bottle, which i fit a stainless steel cantine cup into as well. The nalgene bottle is the green glow-in-the-dark kind, and shows both fluid oz and ml amounts on the side, which comes in very handy when cooking freeze-dried meals on the go. Inside the bottle are several of the Emergency Purified Water drinking pouches   (as they can freeze but will not burst unlike other containers) as well as water purification tablets.

Keep in mind this kit is only a small get-home bag to cover a distance of less than 5 miles ( even with avoiding main routes and the city center and taking the long way home) that could easily be walked within a few hours so it is only meant to supplement what I carry on me everyday anyway ( see more about our EDCs in an upcoming post!) My vehicle EDC will soon be supplemented with a H&R 20 gauge snake charmer and at this point the ammo will be distributed accordingly.


Check back here for Gunny's EDC vehicle kit for his 80 mile round-trip commute that will be coming live on Saturday 2/20/2016!